'Mastered 2' authors explore reading/writing BDSM
Authors of this week's new Mastered 2: Ten Tales of Sensual Surrender boxed set (only 99 cents!) — Opal Carew, Portia Da Costa, Madelynne Ellis, T.J. Michaels, Emily Ryan-Davis(Author), Jennifer Leeland, Cynthia Sax, Evangeline Anderson, Avery Aster, Karen Fenech, Ruby Foxx and Saskia Walker — join HEA to answer a burning question and share a bit about their story in the set …
Karen Fenech, author of His Touch
What's your favorite part of reading/writing BDSM?
Karen: When I started writing His Touch,// I didn't think of myself as writing a BDSM story, but a story of love that took place in the BDSM world. It all comes down to love and how we choose to give love and to receive it. For each of us, that's different and those differences are wonderful things.
About His Touch: After her life is shattered by her Dom, can Corinne trust another man with her submission and her heart?
Opal Carew, author of Played by the Master
Reading/writing BDSM? The whips, leather and handcuffs, baby! Haha! But seriously, I love writing stories where a strong alpha male takes control of a woman. For example, I love the breathless excitement the heroine experiences when he pushes her against the wall, pins her hands over her head and ravages her mouth, his hard body crushing her against the hard surface. I love the resistance she feels, even while she's melting in his arms, then the sweetness of her eventual surrender to his expert control. I love the intense masculinity and authority of the hero, contrasted with the incredible protectiveness he feels for his woman. (Oh, my! Fan please!)
About Played by the Master: Jacqueline Bell desperately wants to help her sister, but to do that, she has to convince billionaire entrepreneur Race Danner to drop the charges against her brother-in-law.
Race Danner is bored with his life. He doesn't know exactly what he's looking for, but he'll know it when he sees it.
When Jacqueline Bell walks into his life, he knows she's it. She wants something from him. And he wants her. A combination made in heaven. In a delicious game of cat and mouse, he will leverage his advantage to lure her into his game. And he fully intends to win.
Ruby Foxx, author of Jenna's Punishment
Reading/writing BDSM? I like to write young heroines and sexy, older men. There's a sense of excitement and uncertainty for my young ladies when they first encounter a big, strong, older man who wants to take control. Especially since these stories of mine typically start out with the man avoiding an entanglement with the younger woman, whom he usually feels a strong sense of protectiveness towards. It is her who pursues the relationship and him who is on the run. At first. But once that barrier is torn down, this big, strong father-figure takes total control of her. And when he punishes her, she has never experienced anything so sweet.
About Jenna's Punishment: Some secrets are worth pursuing, especially when discovering them means you might be punished!
I've been attracted to him for a long time, but he is totally out of bounds. He's my best friend's father and I know I shouldn't be lusting after him. But now he's offered me a summer job at his place and things are heating up between us. He has just one rule. Don't look inside the room.
But I just can't resist.
Jennifer Leeland and Emily Ryan Davis, authors of Tangled and Bound
Reading/writing BDSM? There is an emotional connection in BDSM romance that makes the happy ending have more impact. Knowing that, no matter what a person's need might be, there's someone out there for them is awesome. There is a quality of honesty and vulnerability with characters in BDSM fiction that can't be found anywhere else. Writing it has been so rewarding because it requires that I delve deep into a character's desires.
About Tangled and Bound: When a threesome gets complicated, conflict can drive lovers apart. Ty, Noah and Tasha must find a way to connect before one of them walks out the door.
Avery Aster, author of XO, Blake
Reading/writing BDSM? As a reader, the shock factor is what always draws me into a hot story. As a writer, it's letting our fantasy run wild on the page with things that we may or may not necessarily do in our personal life.
About XO, Blake: For fans who appreciate the dark comedy BDSM film Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. It's an erotic exploration in domination and submission where Ivy League students let their naughtiest desires run wild!
Portia Da Costa, author of Her Secret
Reading/writing BDSM? I've always enjoyed writing BDSM erotic romance for the challenge it represents. The desires and emotions of dominant and submissive characters might at first seem incomprehensible to those who've never explored power exchange. Which means there's enormous satisfaction to be derived from writing about heroes and heroines who play games of pleasure-pain, and from doing my best to make their world feel believable and appealing.
About Her Secret: Lover from her past…
Jamie Lennox is the first man that Susannah ever loved, but now he's different, dangerous and more devastatingly attractive than ever before. Their reunion is passionate and perverse, a thrilling exchange of power and pleasure. Can this lover from Susannah's past become the master of her future?
Evangeline Anderson, author of Mastering the Mistress
Reading/writing BDSM? For me writing BDSM is all about control — not just who has it but who's giving it up. Like many women, I fantasize about finding the perfect Dom I could just give myself to — someone who knows me so well he can give me exactly what I need ... even if I don't want to admit I need it. That's what I try to write when I write BDSM — not just hot and kinky sex scenes, although they do play a part, but also the psychological aspects of giving up control. Being finally able to explore a part of yourself that for whatever reason has been repressed or denied and loving every minute of it.
Short excerpt from Mastering the Mistress: Kaylee entered the elevator last. She was nibbling her lush lower lip and there was a look of uncertainty on her pretty face. Solar stared at her and she looked up, meeting his gaze in the mirror. Their gazes locked and for a long, breathless moment they looked into each other's eyes.
She's beautiful, Solar admitted to himself reluctantly. In fact, under different circumstances, he might have asked to buy her a drink. Unfortunately, they weren't exactly standing side by side at the friendly neighborhood space port bar. He was currently her property—bound and collared and subject to her every whim. It kind of put a damper on a male's mood.
Cynthia Sax, author of One Night With My Billionaire Master
Reading/writing BDSM? I really love the safe-word aspect of any great BDSM scene. That the Sub has the ability to stop the action at any time affects the balance of control and spirals the tension skyward! Will the Dom push the Sub too far? Can the Sub take as much as the Dom believes he/she can? Will the Sub explore places within him/her that the Dom believes should be explored? If the Sub uses his/her safe word, how will that affect the Dom, their relationship? It adds another facet to an already complicated arrangement.
About One Night With My Billionaire Master: One night. No one must know.
This is the text I sent Logan Ross this morning. The billionaire financier is my father's number one nemesis and has been pursuing me for months. He wants to own me, completely, promising exquisite pleasure balanced by equally intense pain, vowing to dominate me, to show me wicked things a virgin like myself shouldn't be interested in.
But I am extremely interested, and I'll risk everything—my job, my family, my future—to experience one night of total submission with this powerful Dom.
Will one night be enough for both of us?
Saskia Walker, author of The Buyer
Reading/writing BDSM? The thing I love most about BDSM romance is the sheer intensity of it! A BDSM story portrays high-stakes emotional and physical power exchange. That's not just hot and sexy reading — it means you get straight to the heart of the relationship because the setup demands risk, sacrifice, trust and compromise between the characters. It's a high-intensity experience for the reader and you can't get better than that.
About The Buyer: When Naomi Kildare meets masterful Lucas Eaglestone a passionate affair sidelines her business and changes her life forever. Lucas asks her to surrender herself to him, totally, and at his hands she experiences sexual pleasures beyond her wildest dreams. A wild weekend with a dominant master proves Naomi's true nature, but will it also prove that business and pleasure don't mix?
T.J. Michaels, author of Luscious
Reading/writing BDSM? My favorite thing to write is the D/s dynamic. I love exploring the different way that a power exchange can be expressed in such a relationship. Since I tend to write very strong (alpha) female leads who are settled in their careers and run their own lives (e.g. biogeneticists, law enforcement agents, lawyers, executives and such), it takes a special guy to bring out the submissive in them. Bringing that particular guy to "life" and creating a happy-ever-after that is believable, is icing on my particular cake.
About Luscious: MacKenzie Ivers is a strong personality who submits to one man — her husband, Landon. After ten years of marriage, a nasty divorce, followed by a sweet reconciliation, Mac wants nothing more than for her husband to stop punishing himself for his part in the former "crazy." It's going to require some conniving and some rope...miles and miles of rope. Luckily, Twilight Teahouse has everything she needs to get this particular rigger back in the saddle.